With the arrival of Peak Oil, the curtain has closed on Act 1 of the drama Petroleum Man. What will happen in Act 2? Chekhov said, "If there's a gun on the wall at the beginning of the play, by the end it must go off." In the world's nuclear arsenal are many guns on the wall. If life copies art, will there be an Act 3 in which the players, having learned their lesson the hard way, live sustainably? To explore these and other questions... FTW's Act 2 Blog. Read, comment, take heart! Orkin

China's oil discovery -- Everyone's getting excited about the "big" new discovery in Bohai Bay. Wen Jiabao is quoted as saying he couldn't even sleep that night. Assuming that is true, it shows he realizes the seriousness of the situation. However, ASPO-USA has a sobering assessment of the find. In conclusion, it's a drop in the bucket.

rice farmer, thank you for that! have sent on to gz workers, activists et al. will try damnedest to get to dc for the hearing. meanwhile i can tell you from many confrontations with whitman(one is described here:http://www.wtceo.org/wtcenvironmentalorganizationwhitmaninterrupted.htm )

that when she's blindsided as she was at the launching of her book tour at cooper union, she goes all deer in headlights. but for any sticky questions at this hearing she'll have some banal patter ready that she'll repeat rotelike, probably to the effect that she can't comment while litigation is pending.

what will be interesting is nadler who will not hold back but who, like many others, has been waiting for this moment for years. he needs to be given credit for being the ONLY politician who spoke out loudly and forcefully before the issue became the cause du jour. there are many people, among both politicians and experts, now coming out of the woodwork and professing outrage but who, in the early days, when PREVENTIVE action might have made a tangible difference, did nothing or actively furthered the government's cause. i remember innumerable fruitless phonecalls and emails to try to get the barge removed from the back doorstep of stuyvesant high school where all the toxic debris was brought for the eight months of the cleanup. dr. cate jenkins has brought some experts such as dr. george thurston, to light. but i remember the others, every one.

I just want to say that I admire you, old friend, for what you've done for all of us, and what I suspect that you'll continue to do, though maybe not in the same way. I love you, brother. And we both wish we were back on the Left Coast!

I have been just made aware of whats going on recently. I truly appreciate all the efforts by everyone to inform those that are willing to listen. It has truly changed my life. I just graduated from undergrad and I am going to be a medical student this comming summer. I will be in a lot of debt at the end of 4 years and I am concerned about what I should do. One about the debt, two taking into consideration what we are about to face how as a doctor can I help?

FTW Admin sort of took the words out of my mouth. We have to look beyond the peak and see what skills and professions will be in high demand, and how they will change to adapt to new circumstances. Doctors will always be needed, so you won't join the ranks of the unemployed. But as noted, doctors will have decreased access to modern drugs and medical equipment.

To carry this on a little further, the primary industries will experience a big revival and makeover. For example, a lot more people will be farming, and the work will be more labor-intensive.

Meanwhile, many secondary- and tertiary-industry professions now deemed prestigious and highly desirable will be largely abandoned.

"May 21 (Bloomberg) -- Kuwait's decision to abandon a peg to the dollar, the first such move by a Middle Eastern country, may put pressure on the United Arab Emirates and Qatar to do the same as inflation accelerates."

Is this blogg all that is left of from the wilderness? I tried many times on the website to get more information but all I learned was the Mr. Ruppert is not able to continue any more. I want to subscribe, I want to contribute. I may not have much (considering I am a medical student) but I would really like to help in any way I can. And by the way I was the one that sent you the private email. Thanks again for you advice. Is there still a "from the wilderness" subscription available?

swift - yes fromthewilderness is all archives at the moment although mike may occasionally write an update on his own status. so no, subscriptions are no longer available. but the blog lives on with its cadre of faithfuls and whoever else is out there keeping their own counsel.

Maintaining infrastructure is already a challenge, and now this. With gas prices already putting the squeeze on consumers, Congress can't increase the gas tax. First expensive gas, and now the roads will be falling into disrepair. It's an End Times scenario if there ever was one.

interesting, Swift. off the top response: it seems to place an unusual amount of power in the hands of the president's chief of staff. there's also a mention later of the vice pres. but i'm not versed in federal bureaucracy and can't say what other powers are being redistributed. will get back to you if more insights ensue.

Yea, ethanol is just another wealth redistribution scheme, as far as I can see. A few people make big bucks and the poor suffer more. The recent rise (actually inflation) in the stock market is also part of the "enrich the rich" plan. I think it's a huge pump-and-dump operation. Since the stock market bubble will surely burst (remember Japan's bubble? -- lots of people lost their shirts when it popped), the big players will cash out just at the right time, leaving the small fish to take the whipping.

As I mentioned above, lots of jobs and professions now deemed glamorous will quickly be forgotten when the petroleum economy falls apart. Here in Japan two relatively new and glamorous (judging by the media hoopla) professions are -- are you ready for this? -- "coffee coordinator" and "vegetable sommelier." I kid you not! when the crunch comes, there will probably be little or no coffee, and people won't care a whit whether their cabbage goes with the rest of their meager menu. Kiss these two professions goodbye.

A Great source of information about the housing bubble and oil bubble and a lot of what FTW stands for is well articulated in THE NEW GOLDEN AGE: THE COMING REVOLUTION AGAINST POLITICAL CORRUPTION AND ECONOMIC CHAOS by Ravi Batra.

The guy accurately predicted the housing bubble of the 80s the breakdown of the Soveit Empire, the War between Iran and Iraq etc. the list goes on.

It is also a great guide to understanding the lies assoicated with contemporary economics as written in our textbooks.

Also if interested in looking at the bigger picture of life and getting a glimpse of life in the near future the book, "INCREDIBLY BELIEVABLE" BY SUNNY SATIN, is really really worth a read.

That "emergency" has two scapegoats: Iran and Osama. In the last two weeks there has been more talk of Osama than the last two years. This may not be the right place and time but I offer a couple of predictions. First, "provocation" into war with Iran. Second, an attack in the US purportedly by Bin Laden, which will give the Bush regime the opportunity to suspend elections and possibly declare Martial Law. He has already hinted at suspending elections (remember after the congressional elections he said something to the effect of "it's great that we live in a country that can hold elections even though we are at war.") Also, I have been saying this since last summer, here in California we will see the $4-gallon which will never come back down.

I'm in the environmental field (more or less), so I read a lot of stuff by people working in that area. There are lots of smart people, but they are apparently blind to peak oil. For example, I have in front of me a text describing how recycling is increasingly becoming an international business, with wastes of all kinds shipped to countries with recycling industries that specialize in processing and recycling certain kinds of wastes. Sounds really advanced, doesn't it? But actually this "recycling globalization" assumes the availability of cheap and plentiful fossil fuels. Believe me, I have done my best to inform these people (many of whom I know personally) about peak oil. But they just keep on working from the same outmoded assumptions. You'd think they could see the handwriting on the wall, but I guess the problem is that peak oil negates all the work they have done over many years.

I've been showing more and more people this video, I'm going to be showing all my family and friends the truth and lies of 9/11 video at my graduation party to inform more people about whats going on. Literally I've been researching the subject of peak oil and 9/11 situation for about 3 weeks now and I'm still dead locked on what I should do first. While I'm still in thought I will keep informing. The best idea I came up with was trying to constantly infrom the media about the importance of exposing the topic. Now I know they aren't the most ethical people themselves but its a start.

I doubt anyone will be able to read this (Danish), but it says that The US has begun an unannounced naval manoeuvre in the Persian Gulf. It includes 9 US naval vessels, including 2 aircraft carriers. They are moving through the the Strait of Hormuz.